Evaluation system and method for evaluating vulcanized rubber material deterioration by ozone

A system, for evaluating ozone deterioration of a vulcanized rubber material, in which a test tank is maintained at a predetermined ozone concentration and a fixing frame enables placement of a test sample of a vulcanized rubber material under a preset placement condition in the test tank, the system comprising:

• a laser sensor disposed facing a surface of the test sample that has been placed in the test tank;
• a storage unit into which detection data of a distance from the laser sensor to the surface, which is detected over time by the laser sensor, is input in a database;
• and
• a computation device configured to execute a predetermined detection data processing program in which the determining of the change in the surface state is performed automatically by comparing indication data indicating a degree of progression of ozone deterioration stored in the storage unit and each of the detection data, the degree of progression of ozone deterioration with respect to the surface state of the test sample in each of the detection data, based on the indication data,
• a degree of change in a surface state of the test sample between a plurality of points in time being calculated by the computation device, based on the detection data.

A method, for evaluating ozone deterioration of a vulcanized rubber material, in which a test sample of a vulcanized rubber material is placed under a preset placement condition in a test tank having a predetermined ozone concentration and a change over time in a surface state of the test sample is determined, the method comprising:

• acquiring detection data by detecting, over time, with a laser sensor disposed facing a surface of the test sample that has been placed in the test tank, a distance from the laser sensor to the surface;
• acquiring image data, which is digital data, by capturing at a fixed point, over time, images of the surface of the test sample with at least one camera device;
• storing each of the image data in a database of a storage unit;
• automatically determining, by comparing indication data indicating a degree of progression of ozone deterioration stored in the storage unit and each of the image data by using a computation device, the degree of progression of ozone deterioration with respect to the surface state of the test sample in each of the image data, based on the indication data;
• and
• determining a change in the surface state of the test sample between a plurality of points in time, based on the detection data, wherein
• the change in the surface state of the test sample between the plurality of points in time being determined additionally based on the image data.

A system, for evaluating ozone deterioration of a vulcanized rubber material, in which a test tank is maintained at a predetermined ozone concentration and a fixing frame enables placement of a test sample of a vulcanized rubber material under a preset placement condition in the test tank, the system comprising:

• a laser sensor disposed facing a surface of the test sample that has been placed in the test tank;
• at least one camera device acquiring image data, which is digital data, by capturing at a fixed point, over time, images of the surface of the test sample;
• a storage unit into which detection data of a distance from the laser sensor to the surface, which is detected over time by the laser sensor, along with the image data is input;
• and
• a computation device configured to execute a predetermined detection data processing program that automatically determines, by comparing indication data indicating a degree of progression of ozone deterioration stored in the storage unit and each of the image data, the degree of progression of ozone deterioration with respect to the surface state of the test sample in each of the image data, based on the indication data, wherein,
• a degree of change in a surface state of the test sample between a plurality of points in time being calculated by the computation device, based on the detection data, and
• the change in the surface state of the test sample between the plurality of points in time being determined additionally based on the image data.